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'Temporary' pumps could become a permanent treatment for heart failure
Wednesday, November 18, 2009 (102 reads)

Mechanical pumps originally designed to supplement the pumping action of a failing heart and keep the patient alive until a transplant could be found have taken a major step toward becoming a permanent treatment – a development that could expand their use to tens of thousands of patients in the United States alone. In an editorial accompanying the new report, Dr. James Fang of University Hospitals Harrington-McLaughlin Heart & Vascular Institute in Cleveland said, "The first priority would be to make sure patients and physicians are aware that ventricular assist therapy is available, effective and safe for well-selected patients.”

University Hospitals Harrington-McLaughlin Heart & Vascular surgeon discusses H1N1 (article and video)
Wednesday, November 11, 2009 (91 reads)

On one floor of University Hospitals Case Medical Center in Cleveland, the H1N1 virus is showing just how random, powerful and destructive it can be, even for healthy adults in the prime of their lives. Walter Savitts, 44, depends on a machine for every breath. His wife, Margaret, is constantly at his side. In the next hospital room, 34-year-old Robert Bradbury floated in and out of consciousness. Except for an asthma attack six years ago, he had been healthy and strong before the virus took hold. Dr. Arie Blitz, a heart surgeon for UH Harrington-McLaughlin Heart & Vascular Institute who treated both men, is featured on ABC’s Nightline discussing their conditions.

Watch the video.

Local doctors differ on health care reform (article and video)
Monday, November 09, 2009 (85 reads)

The majority of local health care providers agree the system needs to be changed and advocates are watching Capitol Hill very closely. But some have differing views on what should be in the measure. Dr. Arie Blitz, a heart surgeon at University Hospitals Harrington-McLaughlin Heart & Vascular Institute, thinks this current health reform bill is like a runaway train – without an experienced conductor. "Physicians have played a monumentally small role in fashioning this bill," Dr. Blitz says.

Watch the video.

The body’s little helper: tiny implanted device could help those with drug-resistant hypertension
Thursday, November 05, 2009 (68 reads)

Drug-resistant hypertension could be a thing of the past, thanks partly to Alan Majni of Willoughby. As part of a clinical trial, Majni had a tiny iPod Nano-sized device, which works a bit like a pacemaker, implanted near his collarbone. The device sends a signal to his brain that his blood pressure is sky-high. The brain then controls functions in his body that can help bring the blood pressure under control, leaving drugs out of the equation. Thirty medical centers across the country are recruiting 300 people to try to demonstrate that the Rheos Baroreflex Hypertension Therapy System is safe to use in the general population. University Hospitals Harrington-McLaughlin Heart & Vascular Institute is the only one in this area, and Majni is part of the local study led by Dr. John Blebea, Chief, Division of Vascular Surgery & Endovascular Therapy.